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July 2010

July 20, 2010

You know, it's really a shame, in a way, the way all this is unfolding with "The Farnsworth" on "Warehouse 13" -- now that the producers have licensed their gizmos for commercial production:

QMx will be pre-miering the first piece in the line, The Farnsworth, at San Diego Comic-Con this week. The Farnsworth is a video communicator that uses secure link that only another Farnsworth can decode. Two prototypes will be on display at San Diego Comic-Con: an exact replica of the hero prop with gray screen and an “idealized” version with more detailed weathering and a realistic, semi-transparent screen.

When you look at product they've developed, this "Farnsworth" communicator (what is this, a 'steam punk' iPhone?), you'll see that it displays all the original graphic logo elements from Farnsworth Television and Radio Corp in the 1940s.

The script "F" - like you see at the top of the page here - and the name "Farnsworth" imbedded in the face of the device, are all taken directly from the corporate logo that first appeared in 1938. Of course, the company was folded into ITT in 1949 and never heard from again, so all the trademarks have all long since lapsed.

If this was, say, General Electric, there's no way they could get away with that sort of trademark infringement. But there is no longer any Farnsworth company to defend these IP assets.

So in this 21s Century, Philo T. Farnsworth -- this obscure, forgotten and neglected inventor-hero from the 20th Century -- has been consigned to the public domain.

Now screen writers like Aaron Sorkin can take all the creative license they want (to the point of changing indisputable historical facts). And TeeVee producers, while finally giving the man the credit he is due, are free to appropriate other aspects of his historic legacy -- in this case, the logo of his long-defunct company -- and exploit that asset entirely for their own benefit.

Only in America. What a country.

So, sadly, the injustice continues. Maybe it couldn't be any other way. I know the family has waited a LONG time for this recognition. It's just unfortunate that, like television itself, it has arrived in a way that provides no benefit whatsoever to the estate. Philo belongs to the ages now.

So yes, starting next week at the Comic-Con, you can order your own Farnsworth (I wonder if the lines will be anything like the lines for an iPhone?).

But you still can't have a "Farnovision." I've got the only one of those. Well, one of the few, anyway.

Of course, in these parts, we don't call it "The Farnsworth," we call it "The Farnovision." But close enough. At least there is one TeeVee show that recognizes its progenitors and gives credit where it is due.

Warehouse 13 Season 2 Episode 3 “Beyond Our Control”

Will be released on: 20 July, 2010Synopsis: When an artifact meant for the Warehouse turns up in the small town next door, the team finds themselves in the middle of a B-movie meltdown complete with cowboys, gladiators, sci-fi robots and beach storming marines. Their only chance of survival rests with the man who invented television, Philo T. Farnsworth.